Norwegian Air cutting frequency of Stewart flights

Judy Rife Times Herald-Record

Monday

Nov 19, 2018 at 7:41 PMNov 19, 2018 at 7:42 PM

STEWART AIRPORT – Norwegian Air will cut the number of flights to Europe from New York Stewart International Airport down to 11 a week in January, the fewest the budget carrier has offered since its heralded arrival at the airport 17 months ago.

The changes reflect not only the usual adjustments for the slow winter season but also Norwegian’s pledge to shareholders to trim costs to counter the high fuel prices that are squeezing the industry and tanking earnings.

“As a cost-disciplined company, we continuously monitor and evaluate our route network, and these changes have been made as part of our commitment to reducing costs,’’ said Anders Lindstrom, a Norwegian spokesman, in a statement.

Flights to Dublin, Ireland, the most popular of Norwegian’s destinations, will drop to once a day from twice a day on Jan. 12. The second flight, added in April, will resume March 31.

And daily flights to Shannon, Ireland, will cease altogether Jan. 12 and resume at the rate of five a week March 31.

Norwegian, which had increased its Shannon schedule to three flights a week from two in April, increased it again to daily in October.

Lindstrom said affected customers have already been informed and offered full refunds or rebooking options.

The Port Authority called the changes at its smallest airport “typical of winter recalibrations of service schedules.”

“We look forward,” the Port Authority’s statement continued, “to coordinating with Norwegian to optimize their schedules and accommodate their plans for additional growth in 2019.’’

“I’m very disappointed but I’m counting on the changes not being a precursor to more in the future,’’ said Louis Heimbach, chairman of the Stewart Airport Commission.

“I’m under the impression that their business at Stewart has been very profitable, with very high load factors, so when the negatives they’re dealing with turn to positives, I hope they come back to a full schedule here.”

The changes leave Stewart with daily Norwegian flights to Dublin and four flights a week to Edinburgh, Scotland.

The schedule, at its height, was 27 flights a week.

Flights to Belfast, Ireland, and Bergen, Norway, ended in October – but service to Bergen, a seasonal destination, will start again in the summer.

Flights to Edinburgh, reduced to four flights a week from daily earlier this year, are scheduled to end altogether in March as part of previously announced Norwegian cuts to its service between Scotland and the United States and Europe.

The carrier began scaling back when the Scottish government decided to postpone a promised 50 percent reduction in air passenger taxes.

Lindstrom stressed that Norwegian remains committed to Stewart and that changes in service are being made throughout its network.

The carrier’s executives, in visits to Stewart, have talked repeatedly about adding new destinations in 2019 and beyond as Boeing continues delivery of new aircraft.

As Stewart’s first international carrier, Norwegian has been wildly successful, using Short Line’s Stewart Airport Express to connect as many as 40 percent of its passengers to New York City – and proving the Port Authority’s contention that its smallest airport could effectively serve the metropolitan region.

Huntley Lawrence, the Port Authority’s aviation director, has called Norwegian’s success “critical” to showing that this concept for growing Stewart is viable.

Passengers who would normally use JFK or Newark marveled at how they could reach Stewart in less time, navigate the airport and its terminal with ease and enjoy Norwegian’s low fares and new planes.

The first six months of Norwegian flights gave Stewart its best passenger count – 448,323 – in eight years last year.

The Port Authority is projecting its volume will top 600,000 this year, most of it attributable to Norwegian.

The turnaround prompted the Port Authority to finally release funds for the long-planned construction of an addition to the terminal to house a dedicated U.S. Customs processing center for international passengers.

Bids for the estimated $30 million project are being reviewed now.

And to ensure that international travelers knew where it is, the Port Authority also pulled the trigger on its controversial proposal to “rebrand” the airport.

It ultimately bowed to family and community sentiment, however, and kept Stewart in the name.

judyrife@gmail.com

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